Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Zaide_sl said:

I want this to be a great game, but I've had to deal with a decade of disappointment from Square Enix now so I'm not counting on it.

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It happened from the very first expansion of EQ (which was launched on NA release). Live was pretty much a beta test throughout the game. Newly opened zone, large map, no content. > Add HNM, no loot. > Break HNM, add loot.

SE got what they deserved with the failure of FFXIV, but so did we for buying it.

I got an alpha invite this morning. The download was relatively small at around 4 gigs, probably because only a small portion of the world is open. It plays like your standard MMO now as opposed to the unplayable mess we all remember a few years back. It has a usable UI, fluid movement/keybinds, improved performance, and you can finally jump. Combat isn't really that slow, it's slower than something like EQ2 but waaay faster than what the old FF14 was.

I only played 30m but it seems like they just took the typical WoW/Aion/Rift experience, fancied up the graphics, and added the job system. I'm sure I'll notice many small differences as I play more but that's the first impression I got from it.

Luxer_sl said:

I got an alpha invite this morning. The download was relatively small at around 4 gigs, probably because only a small portion of the world is open. It plays like your standard MMO now as opposed to the unplayable mess we all remember a few years back. It has a usable UI, fluid movement/keybinds, improved performance, and you can finally jump. Combat isn't really that slow, it's slower than something like EQ2 but waaay faster than what the old FF14 was.

I only played 30m but it seems like they just took the typical WoW/Aion/Rift experience, fancied up the graphics, and added the job system. I'm sure I'll notice many small differences as I play more but that's the first impression I got from it.

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I'd love to hear how they did the job system. Did they rip it straight FF11 style or did they try to salvage anything out of 14s pick and choose your skills from classes you mastered.

Luxer_sl said:

I got an alpha invite this morning. The download was relatively small at around 4 gigs, probably because only a small portion of the world is open. It plays like your standard MMO now as opposed to the unplayable mess we all remember a few years back. It has a usable UI, fluid movement/keybinds, improved performance, and you can finally jump. Combat isn't really that slow, it's slower than something like EQ2 but waaay faster than what the old FF14 was.

I only played 30m but it seems like they just took the typical WoW/Aion/Rift experience, fancied up the graphics, and added the job system. I'm sure I'll notice many small differences as I play more but that's the first impression I got from it.

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How much FF11 influence does there appear to be? 5 million WoW clones already, hoping FF14 v2 doesn't turn into yet another one.

Valos_sl said:

I'd love to hear how they did the job system. Did they rip it straight FF11 style or did they try to salvage anything out of 14s pick and choose your skills from classes you mastered.

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I never played 11 so I can't say how similar it is. You pick a starting job and when you reach level 10 you can pick up the others, you have to go to the class guild of that particular one. In the starting village there's an archer guild, lancer guild, conjurer guild, etc.

At a certain point in FF11, you were able to get a subjob. This allowed you to use the abilities of that subjob @ half the level of your main job. For example, if you were a level 50 white mage, you could have up to level 25 black mage as a subjob. BUT you had to level up the subjob to that point, otherwise if say you only leveled the black mage up to level 4, you'd be a level 50 whm with a level 4 blk sub. And it was only up to half of the main, so if you reversed it and started leveling up your black mage, whm wasnt 4 blk/ 50whm 50, but 4blk/ 2whm and increased every even number of black mage leveling.

FF14 had a point system and every? ability counted towards it. I cant remember if main abilities did or not, but any sub abilities sure did. This allowed you to mix and match abilities from any class you leveled up.

Sean_sl said:

Seriously hope they come to their senses and ditch the Subscription model for this.

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If they want this to be successful in the West, they're going to have to do something. Perhaps the Japanese will be eager to give this another try since it's Square-Enix, but no MMO has really ever been able to recover from a bad launch in NA. Hobble along perhaps, but I'm doubting that's the sort of goal they have in mind for this. If they don't do F2P (which is doubtful), they're going to need a seriously aggressive marketing campaign which includes a trial immediately after launch. Though, considering how long it took FFXI to ever get a trial (ie years), I'm sort of doubtful of that as well.

I disagree, if the game is good word of mouth will get around and the game will be a relative sustainable success much as ff11 has been for years.

Word of mouth will do the marketing for you in this internet age, the game just has to be good.

If the game is fantastic, it will be fine. If its only "medicore" or fills the niche of a group required MMO, then yeah they will need to be aggressive in their approach. If its just not good, nothing even has to be said.

I dont think any one really remembers this game.

The job system in 14 changed a lot over the last year. You had advanced jobs at 30 to unlock which required 2 subjobs to be at a specific level. You could only take spells from certain base classes with an advance job and only specific skills too. They did away with physical level and alottment points were set for each job so you didn't gimp yourself switching from tank to caster. I played for a couple months before they brought down the servers, I'm looking forward to trying the alpha

damn wish I had an account. It looks pretty good actually.

Vittra_sl said:

The job system in 14 changed a lot over the last year. You had advanced jobs at 30 to unlock which required 2 subjobs to be at a specific level. You could only take spells from certain base classes with an advance job and only specific skills too. They did away with physical level and alottment points were set for each job so you didn't gimp yourself switching from tank to caster. I played for a couple months before they brought down the servers, I'm looking forward to trying the alpha

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Didnt know that. I guess they might stick with that system if they already revamped it.

final fantasy MMOs have always been the most confusing things to me. You need chronospheres to play on shardworlds with your crystalpals that you have to buy separate and you can only make one character. It's like they didn't want anyone but weaboo final fantasy nerds to ever play them. I don't know who the fuck even cares about this franchise anymore

Got a alpha invite. I'll check it out and see if its even remotely close to FFXI.

Got an alpha invite as well. Keep getting error when trying to patch a particular file.

I got one also. Still patching.

Flake_sl said:

Got a alpha invite. I'll check it out and see if its even remotely close to FFXI.

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Sir Flake as a fellow FF11 lover (Currently playing a classic private server with 10 population lol) please share your impression.